MLB commish feels ‘sorry’ for A’s fans in Oakland
-
Joon Lee, ESPN
NEW YORK — Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred fired back Thursday against the backlash facing Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher, who hopes to move the team to Las Vegas.
“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland,” Manfred said. “I do not like this outcome. I understand why they feel the way they do. I think the real question is what is it that Oakland was prepared to do? There is no Oakland offer. They never got to the point where they had a plan to build a stadium at any site. It’s not just John Fisher. … The community has to provide support, and at some point you come to the realization that it’s just not going to happen.”
In a statement to ESPN, the Oakland mayor’s office pushed back against Manfred’s characterization.
“There was a very concrete proposal under discussion and Oakland had gone above and beyond to clear hurdles, including securing funding for infrastructure, providing an environmental review and working with other agencies to finalize proposals,” said a spokesperson for the Oakland mayor’s office. “The reality is the A’s ownership had insisted on a multibillion-dollar, 55-acre project that included a ballpark, residential, commercial and retail space. In Las Vegas, for whatever reason, they seem satisfied with a 9-acre leased ballpark on leased land. If they had proposed a similar project in Oakland, we feel confident a new ballpark would already be under construction.”
The Nevada Legislature gave final approval Wednesday to provide public funding for a proposed $1.5 billion stadium with a retractable roof, approving a bill with $380 million in taxpayer money on a 25-15 vote, including the creation of a special tax district around the stadium — that would be the smallest in MLB — to generate money to pay off bonds and interests going toward funding.
The plan in Nevada reignited the debate over public funding for private sports clubs, with representatives for the A’s and Nevada tourism stating that the new stadium could add to the growing Las Vegas sports scene, which features the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights and the NFL’s Raiders, who also moved from Oakland ahead of the 2020 season.
Several academic articles — including a 2015 study from Stanford economist Roger Noll — came to the conclusion that professional sports stadiums do not generate local growth as advertised. According to one study published by the Journal of Economic Surveys in 2022, overall employment tends to not grow in the stadium’s communities and areas with sports teams and stadiums are not associated with greater income growth or business activity.
Manfred pushed back against those studies.
“I love academics; they’re great,” Manfred said. “Take the areas where baseball stadiums had been built, OK? Look at what was around Truist Park before that was built. Look at the area around Nationals Park before that was built. I lived in that city. Academics can say whatever they want. I think the reality tells you something else.”
Cobb County received a $300 million subsidy to build Truist Park, but five years after its opening, the county still had a $15 million annual deficit to service the debt to cover operations of the stadium. While the county experienced spending growth after the stadium opened, tax revenue fell short of covering the money spent on the facility. While the county promised high tax revenue from higher property assessments because of the stadium, that has not materialized, leading to an increase in property taxes to cover expenses.
Oakland fans have vocally pushed back against moving the franchise to Las Vegas. On Tuesday, A’s fans staged a reverse boycott intending to fill the Oakland Coliseum, which has averaged 8,555 fans this season. The game drew 27,759 and created a playoff atmosphere, with chants of “Sell the Team!” reverberating throughout the stadium.
Manfred said he was out at dinner with the owners during the game but read the coverage about the event.
“It was great,” Manfred said. “It’s great to see what is this year almost an average Major League Baseball crowd in the facility for one night. That’s a great thing.”
The A’s went to the playoffs in 2019 and 2020 before the team began trading away its young stars in an attempt to reduce payroll, now the lowest in baseball. While the quality of the roster declined, the team raised ticket prices. In trying to justify the relocation to Las Vegas, the team stated the poor attendance and the condition of the ballpark prompted the move.
“The ballpark’s not in good shape,” Manfred said. “The ballpark is not a major league facility. I’ve said it repeatedly.”
Prominent Las Vegas baseball voices oppose the move of the Athletics to Las Vegas. Philadelphia Phillies superstar Bryce Harper — who was born in Las Vegas — told USA Today on Thursday that the Athletics would be better served remaining in Oakland and that he would rather see the city get an expansion franchise.
“I feel sorry for the fans in Oakland,” Harper said. “It’s just not right. They have so much history in Oakland. You’re taking a team out of a city. I’m pretty sad because of all the history and all of the greatness they’ve seen there.”
“I see the A’s as Oakland. I don’t see them as Vegas.”
The City of Oakland negotiated with the A’s to develop a stadium and mixed-use district at Howard Terminal. Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao pulled out of negotiations, believing the city was being used as leverage to get a better deal with Las Vegas. Thao said after the Nevada vote that California’s legislature passed three new pieces of legislation to support construction of a new A’s ballpark at Howard Terminal.
“The A’s have been part of Oakland for more than half a century, and they belong in this city,” Thao said in a statement. “There is no city that has worked harder to meet the needs of a team than Oakland.”
While the A’s might not be in Vegas much longer, Manfred said he hopes the sport did not lose fans in Oakland.
“I hope they stay baseball fans,” Manfred said. “Whatever team they decide to affiliate with.”
-
Shwetha Surendran
The NCAA sent a letter to Kalshi, a company that offers prediction markets on college basketball and football, expressing its concern about the company’s “commitment to contest integrity and the protection of contest participants,” according to a copy of the letter obtained by ESPN.
In the letter, dated Oct. 30, NCAA chief legal officer Scott Bearby asked Kalshi how it monitors collegiate sports markets for integrity concerns and activity by prohibited customers, who it considers a prohibited customer, whether it will report integrity concerns to the NCAA and whether the company will cooperate with NCAA investigations.
“We welcome Kalshi’s stance on its efforts to protect the integrity of NCAA competitions and to reduce instances of abuse and harassment directed at student-athletes and other participants,” Bearby wrote.
The NCAA also asked if Kalshi would ban prediction markets similar to prop bets, which the company began offering this fall.
Prop betting markets, Bearby noted in the letter, heighten “the risk of integrity and harassment concerns.” In March last year, NCAA president Charlie Baker called for a ban on prop bets on college athletes in states with legal sports wagering.
The NCAA also asked Kalshi in the letter to review language on its website that the NCAA says implies a relationship between them.
“Kalshi has robust market integrity provisions required by our status as a federally licensed financial exchange,” a Kalshi spokesperson said in a statement to ESPN. “We value the NCAA’s feedback and are working on adjusting the language on our site. We are currently reviewing and addressing their additional requests.”
Prediction markets like Kalshi have emerged over the past year and are competing with traditional sportsbooks in the betting market. Kalshi is battling multiple lawsuits by state gambling regulators, who allege that the company is violating state laws by offering event contracts that mimic sports bets. Kalshi argues that it does not fall under state jurisdiction and is instead regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, a federal agency.
In March, Kalshi announced a partnership with IC360, an integrity monitor used by many collegiate and professional leagues.
The NCAA has faced an increasing number of alleged betting violations by players in recent years. In September, the NCAA announced that a Fresno State men’s basketball player had manipulated his performance for gambling purposes and conspired with two other players in a prop betting scheme. In total, the association has opened investigations into potential betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men’s basketball players.
CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Miami has asked the Atlantic Coast Conference for clarity on a number of officiating decisions made in its loss this past weekend to SMU, including a critical 15-yard penalty in the final moments of regulation.
Miami lost the game, 26-20. The Hurricanes, who were as high as No. 2 in the AP Top 25 last month, have dropped two of their last three games and are now ranked No. 18.
Hurricanes coach Mario Cristobal said Miami has not gotten an answer from the ACC. It’s unclear if any explanations will be coming.
“Certainly, we’re waiting what the response is, as well as on the roughing the passer one which we certainly don’t agree with,” Cristobal said Monday. “But at this point in time, the best we can do is turn it in and hope for a better result next time.”
The Hurricanes’ Marquise Lightfoot was called for unnecessary roughness against SMU quarterback Kevin Jennings with about a minute left in the fourth quarter, giving the Mustangs 15 yards and a first down. Miami had called time out just before the fourth-and-9 play was snapped, and the Hurricanes argued to no avail that Lightfoot did not hear the whistle.
Replays showed that Lightfoot, who did make contact with Jennings, tried to hold the SMU quarterback up after apparently realizing the play was dead.
That penalty gave SMU the ball on the Miami 37, and the Mustangs went on to kick an overtime-forcing field goal.
Miami also was incensed about how a pass interference flag that would have aided the Hurricanes was picked up, and how officials missed a Hurricanes receiver getting tackled in the end zone on a play that wound up as a Miami interception in overtime.
Miami was called for 12 penalties in the game for 96 yards, compared with four by SMU for 40 yards. The eight-penalty differential tied Miami’s biggest of the season; it had 13 penalties compared with five by Florida State when those teams played in Tallahassee last month.
-
Sports2 years agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports3 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports2 years agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports3 years agoButton battles heat exhaustion in NASCAR debut
-
Sports3 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment1 year agoHere are the best electric bikes you can buy at every price level in October 2024